Rumor Has It
by Myx Nyx
Summary: Keeping a secret in the lab is harder than you might think.


**A/N: Howdy, folks! Thanks for all the love on my ficlet 'The Date.' If you haven't read it yet, hop to it and please review! Here's another one I dug out of my stores and revamped. I think its pretty cute. :)**

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I'm walking down the hall, just flipping through some files, when I get the distinct impression I'm being watched. I look over my shoulder, but everyone is hard at work. I shrug it off and, closing my file, head over to the break room. Only Nick and Catherine are there already. Nick looks up from the paper at me, but instead of his usual friendly greeting, his eyes widen and he goes straight back to his paper. I frown. That's not like him. Maybe he didn't sleep well?

I set my kit on a chair along with my jacket and make my way to the coffee machine. Catherine has beaten me to it. She must have gotten a haircut this afternoon, it's several inches shorter and has lots of layers. She looks especially good today, in a tight blue turtle neck and even tighter grey skirt. Knee-length skirt. High-cut top. She must have court or something.

I lean against the counter with my mug. "Hey, Cath."

Catherine looks over at me and smirks. "Hey, Sara." She raises an eyebrow.

"What?"

And that's when it happens. That's when the weird but kind of amazing and wonderful thing happens. She gives me the once over; blatantly. It was so obvious that even socially unaware Sara is one hundred percent sure that it happened. "Nothing," she says dismissively, pitching her voice. She pauses while she pours her coffee, then she asks, "Are you still working on that cannibal thing up in Summerlin? That's got to be gruesome stuff."

What? That's it? "Uh…no. Grissom and I wrapped it up last shift. Yeah, it was nasty. But you know how he gets."

"Lemme guess? Fascinated, huh?"

"Completely in his own world." We're we having a conversation? Like, a real one? That hasn't happened in a while. "He was so into how the guy took apart the bodies and stored individual pieces."

Catherine shuddered but nodded, taking a sip of her coffee, "Did you get a history lesson?"

I had to smile, pouring my own coffee, "Did you know that in over eighty percent of all documented cases of cannibalism, the actual consumption of human flesh is purely for ritualistic purposes? But that when you apply that statistic to incidents that were isolated to less than five people, that percentage drops to below twenty?"

Catherine laughed, "Moral of the story; when dining intra-species, don't dine alone."

"I guess I'll just have to have a party when I finely decide to fry Greg."

She snorted. "I'm in."

"You'll help me hide the body?"

We both looked at each other and chuckled.

"Not if you're really frying him." She rubbed her stomach. "Can't take the calories."

We were both laughing hard now. This was different. This was fun!

It was over too soon though, when Gil came in with Greg on his heels. He waved for us all to gather round. "Okay, everybody, listen up. Nick, you're solo on a carjacking gone wrong off the strip. Catherine, you're on…" He looked up and cocked his head, "Catherine, didn't you have a deposition at seven?"

She nodded, "Got pushed back. It's in an hour. I don't have time to take a case." She shrugged, "Sorry."

Gil waved her off and looked back to the slips, "Greg, you're with me today. Potential 419 in Seven Hills- the girl's in a coma."

Greg let out a huge sigh of relief and shot a glance at me. His eyes were wide and nervous; he looked like he expected me to hit him or something.

Catherine watched the interaction, snorted, and turned back to get her coffee.

"Sara-" Gil looked at me, looked at the floor, coughed, then continued, "Sara, you'll be with Warrick on a B&E. But if anything else comes in, I want you to let him take primary and you move on to the new case. He's in the locker room right now. Alright, guys, that's it. Check-in with me later."

What the hell was going on with people today?

I ambled to the locker room and found Warrick. I said 'hey', he grunted. At least he was acting normal. We talked casually on the way to the crime scene, we processed, we discussed the case on the way back; normal. In fact, I had completely forgotten that the day had started out strangely until about halfway through shift.

"Knock, knock." Catherine was standing in the doorway of the layout room where I was working alone.

Wanting to keep on the vein we had been on earlier, I smiled, "Hey, all finished with that deposition?" I straightened.

She waved a hand, "Never happened. The guy settled out of court. Took a plea of twenty-five to life." She shrugged, "He'll get the minimum sentence, but at least we'll know where he is until he's too old to look inconspicuous at little girls' ballet recitals."

"Oh, the Kaplan case? Travis Murray?"

She nodded.

"That was a hard case for you and Nick, at least you didn't have to live through 'on the stand'. That's rough about the deal, though. He should be serving three consecutive life sentences."

She shrugged.

"So, what can I do you for?"

"Huh?"

"You came to see me, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." She came closer, twisting her body minutely from side to side. She stopped right on the line of my personal space and looked up at me. "Well, Gil said that until another case comes in, I can jump on any case I wanted…and I'd like to jump on yours." She grinned.

My brain stopped. I stared at those blue eyes. _Pretty. Pretty girl. Pretty girl wants to jump on me. No. Stop. Wait. Get a hold of yourself. She wants to get on board with your case. Calm down._

"Uhh…yeah, sure. No problem. Why don't I fill you in? Warrick is on break but he's picking up some results on the way back and then we'll know more."

Her grin widened, "Sounds good, Sidle."

When Warrick returned, we were both leaning against the table side by side, discussing the details of the case.

He was looking down at his files as he walked in and said, "So, Sara is it true what I heard about-" he looked up and noticed Catherine with wide eyes. What was with the startled looks today? "Oh, hey, Cath…you, uh, back from court?" He took a step back.

I did not miss the return of the wicked grin on her face. "Yeah. Gil said I could work with you guys until something else came in. That okay?" And then I swear she winked at him!

He looked between us, "Yeah." He looked between us again. "Yeah, cool. Uh, Sara tell you how it went down?"

"Mhm. Those the results from the shell casings?" She nodded towards the file in his hands.

"Yeah, you want to take a look? Oh, hey, Sara, Judy at the desk said she had a message from Brass, you…wanna go check that out?"

It was my turn to look between them. Warrick looked awkward. Catherine looked innocent. Too innocent. "Yeah. Sure." I walked toward the door. "What were you going to say before? Is it true what you heard about…?"

"Oh, uh, I heard you were…thinking about getting a hybrid. So…are you?" he finished lamely.

"Thinking about it?" I raised my eyebrows at him. "Yeah…I'm thinking about it." I turned and headed down the hall. Behind me, I heard Catherine's voice.

"Nice save, motormouth."

"Shut up, I…"

I rounded the corner and their talk died off. Yep. Something was definitely up. And it was not my imagination earlier, I was definitely being watched. As I got closer to the front desk, I saw people quickly looking away from me or even pausing in their conversation. What the…? I shook my head and tried to come up with some sort of logical conclusion.

Collecting the message from Brass, I tried to ignore the too casual glances cast my way and thought back over the evening. Everyone was avoiding me- even Grissom. Everyone except Catherine who was acting strangest of all. She was acting like she liked me. A lot. And Warrick hadn't been weird until he came in asking if something he'd heard was true. Shit. I looked around at people trying to appear busy. I was clearly the victim of some vicious gossip that was going around the lab rumor mill. Gossip that made everyone around me nervous except Catherine who was clearly impressed. Well then it was obviously sexual.

Jesus. What was I supposed to do? Instead of heading straight back to the lab we were working in, I took a detour and headed for Greg. He had definitely looked the guiltiest earlier on in the break room. I passed him in the hall and, in full view of a couple of other people, grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the locker room, protesting all the way, and pushed him up against the wall.

"Oof! Sara, what the hell, I was-" He saw the expression on my face and gulped. "You know."

I ground my teeth. "What do I know, Greg?"

"You know…what I did."

"What did you do, Greg?"

"Please," he pleaded, "please, don't hurt me."

"What. Did. You. Do. Greg?"

"I was drunk." He waved his hands desperately. "I was drunk and I'm sorry."

"Damn it, Greg! What does the entire lab think they know about me?!"

"Uh…well, I was out with Archie and Hodges and Wendy and some…other people last night,"

"Greg…"

"And we were talking,"

"Greg…"

"And talk turned to office romances and you know… crushes," he looked meaningfully at me.

My eyes widened, "Tell me you didn't."

"And I had been drinking…quite a bit…"

"Greg."

"And I kinda sorta…"

He trailed off, but I finished the sentence for him, "Told everyone that I have a thing for Catherine."

He looked away and then back at me. "Please, please don't hurt me."

Oh, God. This was way worse than people thinking some weird sexual thing about me. Threesome with strippers, I could handle. Sex with Hodges, I could handle. Extra hours sessions with Lady Heather? I could handle. This? This was much worse. Why? Because this was true. It was true, and Catherine knew. Catherine clearly knew and had been taking the piss all night long. Fuck.

I dropped Greg's collar and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To fix this! You are in the dog house, Greg! Stay out of my way!" I stalked out and down the hall.

I glared at everyone I came across and sent them scampering on their way. Looking at the message in my hand, I sighed and once again headed away from the lab I was supposed to be working in. For all my bravado in front of Greg, I needed a little more bravery before I could confront Catherine. Since liquor wasn't option, I chose the only thing on hand. Caffeine. But upon entering the break room, I found that today was just not my day. There was Catherine, unintentionally staking out the coffee maker. Balls. Shaking myself, I moved past her and started preparing myself a cup.

I could hear the smile in her voice before she even opened her mouth. "Where've you been, Sidle? Me and Warrick got tired of waiting on you."

"Just having a little chat," I said, my back to her, "With Greg."

The smile got even wider, I could see it in my mind. "Oh, really? What about?"

I spun, suddenly too annoyed to be nervous. I hate being toyed with. "Cut the crap, Catherine. I know you know."

She looked innocent. Again. "Know what?"

I scoffed, "Oh, come on. I know why everyone in this nattering gossip factory has been gawping at me all freaking shift. And why you have been screwing with me since you walked in."

Catherine still looking nonplussed. "I haven't been screwing with you. Why would I be screwing with you?"

I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and turned back to my coffee. "I don't see what the big deal is anyway. Everybody else in the LVPD wants to get in your pants, what does it matter if there's one more name on _that_ list?"

There was a silent pause and then a quieter voice said, "Maybe because it's the only name that matters."

I froze. _Uh…what?!_ I set my mug on the counter and turned around, shell shocked. There stood Catherine, looking unsure of herself for the first time all night. Well damn, if I didn't look just as scared. "What?"

She shrugged. "I haven't been screwing with you. I just…didn't think I had a shot until today. I heard Wendy telling one of the dayshift techs as I came in that Greg had blabbed yesterday that you had 'the major hots' for me." She shrugged again. "I just wanted to put it to the test. But if all you want is to get in my pants…" She looked at me squarely. "I can't help you." She dumped the tail end of her coffee down the sink and turned to go.

I just stood stock still. Had that really just happened? My brain caught up with me. Yeah, it totally had. Not even thinking, I was jogging down the hall after her. "Catherine, wait!"

She stopped and I hurried to catch up with her. She just looked at me, waiting for me to say something.

"I…do, umm, want to get into your pants."

She rolled her eyes and turned to go.

I grabbed her arm and turned her back. "But, you know, I'd like to take you to dinner first- more than once. No rush about the pants thing, really. I uh, want to talk and get to know you better, and do stuff, non-pants-removing stuff."

She quirked a smile at me.

"But, eventually, you know, the whole in the pants scenario would be…pretty great."

Catherine out and out grinned. "So, what you're saying is…you want to date me."

I grinned back. "Yeah. That is…what I'm saying. Whoa!" The 'whoa' was because I suddenly had my arms full of Catherine as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Good," she whispered in my ear. "That is very, very good." Without missing a beat, she pulled back and kissed me hard. On the lips. In the lab.

I kissed her back for a couple of seconds but then pushed her away. "Geez, Cath! We're in the middle of the hallway!"

She grinned. "Is there a point to hiding? People already know anyway."

"People know I want to shag you senseless, they don't know you-"

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, actually, they do. Or at least, they will very soon if they don't already. I told Warrick to put it around that I…want to shag you senseless too."

I stared at her. "Uh…why?"

She shrugged. "I hoped it would get back to you and you would make a move."

I shook my head and started heading down the hall. I could see faces disappearing into labs ahead of me, but I could not find the will to care. "You're crazy, you know that? That is just crazy."

She shrugged again and leaned on me, her wrist on my shoulder. I saw her wink at Nick through a doorway as we passed. "I'm not a patient woman. That's something you need to know about me if we're going to make a go of this."

"Oh, trust me, darlin', that is something I already knew. So, dinner before shift?"

"Why wait? How about breakfast?"

I grinned. This day seemed to be going my way after all. Up ahead I saw Greg duck for cover in the DNA lab. My grin broadened. Let him think he was in the dog house for a little while longer. I could always thank him tomorrow. "Breakfast would be great."

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